Archive for May, 2007

Well here is my dilemma. My mother-in-law has family coming from Japan for a three-month visit. While they are here they want to really see the U.S. The first part of the plan is to go to visit San Antonio where my brother-in-law and his wife live and then on to Houston to see a niece and her husband and kids. This will be a 12-hour car trip from were we live with three elderly people speaking Japanese (which DH and I do not speak). This is going to be a very long journey. I really canít get in the right frame of mind for this trip. We will be driving my MILís car and she will be paying for the gasoline, buying lunches, have a free place to stay at brother-in-law house so really not a whole lot of out of pocket expenses.

Why am I having problems with this? I guess it is just the fact that we are trying so hard to really watch our money and I know that we will end up spending money even though it should not be much.

Saturday night we had the neighbors over for dinner. It was a great meal and wonderful conversation. Today the men are playing golf all day and I taking it easy here at home. I got several books from the library so have reading materials I can relax with. Got my grocery shopping done so don't have to leave the house and spend any money today. Tomorrow may spend some time with with girl friend window shopping. No buying as their is nothing that either of us need. We like to get ideas on home decor and I also make jewelry so I look for jewelry design ideas. I do need to look over medical bills from my gallbladder surgery as need to see exactly what I owe after all insurance payment have been made. It will possible be around $1,500 but that is not too bad for my part after seeing what the total would have been without insurance.

We have spent a small fortune on eating out. Worse than the damage to our pocket book is the cost to our health and well being. I finally took the time to do a menu for the next two weeks and did my grocery shopping only with those items. When I did this I really do stick with it. One of the things on my list was a Mountain Dew drink that was needed for a dessert. I only needed six ounces and a single Mountain Dew at the store was going to cost me $1.49. My neighbor is a large drinker of Mountain Dew and buys it in the cans. She gave me one to use since we are always calling each other we find we are short an ingredient. Money saved $1.49 on this one product. I also went back to the local Hostess/Wonder bread store for items that are cheaper than the regular grocery store. This did not involve any extra gasoline as It was near other places where I had errand to run. I also went to Aldi's to purchase some items so saved there also. Stayed in my $130.00 budget for groceries. This is for two people.